One night in Bangkok
Door: Yaisa
Blijf op de hoogte en volg Yaisa
24 Januari 2009 | Thailand, Bangkok
It’s 3.30 am local time in Bangkok and I’m at the airport waiting for my next flight. I landed here at midnight, after 4 nights/5 days in Singapore of what I would call a little trip down memory lane as well as a new adventure. But let me start at the beginning.
On 8 Jan I arrived in Khao Lak where Stefano and I were finally reunited. I remember promising myself it was going to be 10 days of bliss in Thailand and it turned out to be everything I expected and more. It was 4 days of excellent diving. White tip reefs sharks, leopard sharks, manta’s, seahorses, ghost pipefish, whiskered pipefish, tons of nudis I had never seen before, hundreds of giant trevallies, spanish mackerels, barracuda’s and I could go on and on and on... After six months of easy diving in the Red Sea, diving in the Similans was a fantastic change. Stronger current, different colours, different fish... And how fortunate to have a boyfriend who has done thousands of dives in this area and who happens to be your practically private dive guide. During the entire dive trip, I was diving with only Stefano and Bruce, an 66 year old hippie who is a regular guest of Similan Diving Safaris and besides being an excellent dive buddy, is also excellent company above water. When we were not diving or eating (fantastic cook on board!), we were on the sundeck of the boat, relaxing, chatting and laughing. Stefano and I spent the 4 nights sleeping on this sundeck as well, for the sake of our own privacy as well as for the benefit of the other guest’s night rest... :-) Unfortunately it was a rather windy week, which meant that our sleeping bag was flapping on top of us all night long and no matter how close we cuddled up, it was freezing... Still, it was romantic with the full moon and the stars (never mind the aircon outlets humming in and out of tune and the relentless rocking of the boat).
Never getting enough of being on the water, the dive safari trip was followed by 4 days of absolute paradise at Khao Sok lake where we had an almost honeymoon-like stay in a little floating bamboo hut hidden between gorgeous limestone mountains. There we did pretty much nothing. Stefano being an avid fisherman, brought his fishing rod along hoping to catch big fish, but sadly, we only caught two little buggers, one of which we had for lunch (mjummie!). Since the fishing was not a big success, we spent most of the time in bed or on the porch of our water bungalow, talking about our past, present and future lives. Ah and yes, we also did some canoeing, visited a cave and spent one evening with another guest drinking beers until long after the generator had shut down, the whole place bathing in darkness and silence. Picture having to go to the toilet in the middle of the night, too sleepy to light the oil lamp thus walking on the floating wooden planks with only the moonlight to shine your path... Or picture waking up early in the morning, hearing the gibbons howling somewhere in the jungle, the ciccada’s tjirping away, the water gently rocking the bungalow... I think “bliss” is understating it...
After this “far-away-from-everything” experience, it was time to dive back into the real world: Singapore. Stefano being a big fan of this city and having to renew his Thai visa and me taking this opportunity of being “around the corner” of my previous home town, we set off for a 5 day/4 night city trip to the city where East meets West. It was a blast. As we landed, I was a bit confused. Was I coming home or was I a tourist? It was a bit of both. I took Stefano to “my Singapore” and he took me to his. We stayed in a hotel in Little India (his Singapore) and had a mutton massala lunch the minute after we checked in. We met up with several of my friends, including Timmo who took us out for a good old sushi lunch.
Are you perhaps interested in the rest of our menu during these five days? Trust me to find a boyfriend who eats everything... :-) Here goes:
- Seafood & Meat Steamboat
- Pork intestine soup with prawns
- Black pepper crab (of course)
- BBQ Stingray
- Chilli clams
- Steamed crab
- Butter crab
- Pig ears
- Pig’s tail noodle soup
- Turtle soup
- Durian (of course)
- Mangosteen
- Mochi (yep, those Chinese New Year chewy candies)
And probably other stuff I’ve long since digested and already forgotten.
Now one dilemma I had, was how in heaven’s name I was going to find the time to see all my friends in such a short period. Try this: call the new tenant of your old apartment and ask him if you can use his place to throw a party in the middle of the week. It worked for me, but possibly because the new tenant of my old apartment is my colleague and friend VK who, as is his flatmate, is always ready for a party. So there I was, on a random Wednesday evening, having drinks in the house where I lived for 5 months, with a bunch of friends I made in the 18 months I was living in Singapore. It was awesome to see everybody again and could not have been any better. When the party finished at around 2 am, Stefano, VK and I decided we were hungry and that’s the charm of Geylang. You can eat 24 hours a day. 2 hours later, having scoffed down a butter crab (Stefano), pig ears and pig’s tail soup (me) and a vegetable curry (VK) and having discussed one of the most interesting challenges in life (love), we headed back to our home in Little India.
And yesterday afternoon, it was time to move on. For me it was the start of the second leg of my trip and for him, it was back to work in Khao Lak. See you in four months babe...
So now here I am, at Bangkok airport, off to Mozambique for some more awesome diving. I’m not quite there yet though... My next flight leaves at 10 am and I got here at midnight. Not willing to spend money for a few hours in a hotel, I decided to bunk at the airport, so I spent some time in an internet cafe freezing my ass off sending emails around the globe. And now I am writing a blog on my internet-less laptop, sitting on a rather uncomfortable airport seat, still freezing my ass off, surrounded by about 20 monks in bright orange dresses taking pictures of each other with pretty expensive SLR’s... Hillarious! Quite a sleepless night in Bangkok, I must say...
The next plane will take me to Bahrain, where I’ll hop on the next one to Cairo. After a lay-over of three hours, I fly on to Nairobi to catch the last flight to Maputo. There, 40 hours after my departure from Singapore, I will hopefully reunite with Darja and Ivan who are currently doing a bushwalk and safari trip in Kruger Park, South Africa. Together, we will drive to Tofo, the dive paradise of Mozambique. If you don’t hear from me after this, it means I was eaten by a shark or swept away by the current. But at least I will have died doing something I love. It would be a spectacular way to go, but no, I think I’ll live a bit longer. Wouldn’t want to miss my trip to Antarctica...
Wishing you all a very festive Chinese New Year,
xYx
PS. Pictures to follow soon!
On 8 Jan I arrived in Khao Lak where Stefano and I were finally reunited. I remember promising myself it was going to be 10 days of bliss in Thailand and it turned out to be everything I expected and more. It was 4 days of excellent diving. White tip reefs sharks, leopard sharks, manta’s, seahorses, ghost pipefish, whiskered pipefish, tons of nudis I had never seen before, hundreds of giant trevallies, spanish mackerels, barracuda’s and I could go on and on and on... After six months of easy diving in the Red Sea, diving in the Similans was a fantastic change. Stronger current, different colours, different fish... And how fortunate to have a boyfriend who has done thousands of dives in this area and who happens to be your practically private dive guide. During the entire dive trip, I was diving with only Stefano and Bruce, an 66 year old hippie who is a regular guest of Similan Diving Safaris and besides being an excellent dive buddy, is also excellent company above water. When we were not diving or eating (fantastic cook on board!), we were on the sundeck of the boat, relaxing, chatting and laughing. Stefano and I spent the 4 nights sleeping on this sundeck as well, for the sake of our own privacy as well as for the benefit of the other guest’s night rest... :-) Unfortunately it was a rather windy week, which meant that our sleeping bag was flapping on top of us all night long and no matter how close we cuddled up, it was freezing... Still, it was romantic with the full moon and the stars (never mind the aircon outlets humming in and out of tune and the relentless rocking of the boat).
Never getting enough of being on the water, the dive safari trip was followed by 4 days of absolute paradise at Khao Sok lake where we had an almost honeymoon-like stay in a little floating bamboo hut hidden between gorgeous limestone mountains. There we did pretty much nothing. Stefano being an avid fisherman, brought his fishing rod along hoping to catch big fish, but sadly, we only caught two little buggers, one of which we had for lunch (mjummie!). Since the fishing was not a big success, we spent most of the time in bed or on the porch of our water bungalow, talking about our past, present and future lives. Ah and yes, we also did some canoeing, visited a cave and spent one evening with another guest drinking beers until long after the generator had shut down, the whole place bathing in darkness and silence. Picture having to go to the toilet in the middle of the night, too sleepy to light the oil lamp thus walking on the floating wooden planks with only the moonlight to shine your path... Or picture waking up early in the morning, hearing the gibbons howling somewhere in the jungle, the ciccada’s tjirping away, the water gently rocking the bungalow... I think “bliss” is understating it...
After this “far-away-from-everything” experience, it was time to dive back into the real world: Singapore. Stefano being a big fan of this city and having to renew his Thai visa and me taking this opportunity of being “around the corner” of my previous home town, we set off for a 5 day/4 night city trip to the city where East meets West. It was a blast. As we landed, I was a bit confused. Was I coming home or was I a tourist? It was a bit of both. I took Stefano to “my Singapore” and he took me to his. We stayed in a hotel in Little India (his Singapore) and had a mutton massala lunch the minute after we checked in. We met up with several of my friends, including Timmo who took us out for a good old sushi lunch.
Are you perhaps interested in the rest of our menu during these five days? Trust me to find a boyfriend who eats everything... :-) Here goes:
- Seafood & Meat Steamboat
- Pork intestine soup with prawns
- Black pepper crab (of course)
- BBQ Stingray
- Chilli clams
- Steamed crab
- Butter crab
- Pig ears
- Pig’s tail noodle soup
- Turtle soup
- Durian (of course)
- Mangosteen
- Mochi (yep, those Chinese New Year chewy candies)
And probably other stuff I’ve long since digested and already forgotten.
Now one dilemma I had, was how in heaven’s name I was going to find the time to see all my friends in such a short period. Try this: call the new tenant of your old apartment and ask him if you can use his place to throw a party in the middle of the week. It worked for me, but possibly because the new tenant of my old apartment is my colleague and friend VK who, as is his flatmate, is always ready for a party. So there I was, on a random Wednesday evening, having drinks in the house where I lived for 5 months, with a bunch of friends I made in the 18 months I was living in Singapore. It was awesome to see everybody again and could not have been any better. When the party finished at around 2 am, Stefano, VK and I decided we were hungry and that’s the charm of Geylang. You can eat 24 hours a day. 2 hours later, having scoffed down a butter crab (Stefano), pig ears and pig’s tail soup (me) and a vegetable curry (VK) and having discussed one of the most interesting challenges in life (love), we headed back to our home in Little India.
And yesterday afternoon, it was time to move on. For me it was the start of the second leg of my trip and for him, it was back to work in Khao Lak. See you in four months babe...
So now here I am, at Bangkok airport, off to Mozambique for some more awesome diving. I’m not quite there yet though... My next flight leaves at 10 am and I got here at midnight. Not willing to spend money for a few hours in a hotel, I decided to bunk at the airport, so I spent some time in an internet cafe freezing my ass off sending emails around the globe. And now I am writing a blog on my internet-less laptop, sitting on a rather uncomfortable airport seat, still freezing my ass off, surrounded by about 20 monks in bright orange dresses taking pictures of each other with pretty expensive SLR’s... Hillarious! Quite a sleepless night in Bangkok, I must say...
The next plane will take me to Bahrain, where I’ll hop on the next one to Cairo. After a lay-over of three hours, I fly on to Nairobi to catch the last flight to Maputo. There, 40 hours after my departure from Singapore, I will hopefully reunite with Darja and Ivan who are currently doing a bushwalk and safari trip in Kruger Park, South Africa. Together, we will drive to Tofo, the dive paradise of Mozambique. If you don’t hear from me after this, it means I was eaten by a shark or swept away by the current. But at least I will have died doing something I love. It would be a spectacular way to go, but no, I think I’ll live a bit longer. Wouldn’t want to miss my trip to Antarctica...
Wishing you all a very festive Chinese New Year,
xYx
PS. Pictures to follow soon!
-
24 Januari 2009 - 00:09
TT:
Xin Nian Kuai Le dear Yais ! -
24 Januari 2009 - 04:56
Katelijne:
Keep travelling darling! Sounds very good :-)
xxx
Cu on the slopes! -
24 Januari 2009 - 06:03
Mama:
nog een minuutje kunnen slapen ergens onderweg? goede vluchten gehad, I hope so, je verhalen houden me in ieder geval ook wakker! ik wou dat ik ook een duiker was!
je bent waarschijnlijk te mager voor die haaien dus tot je volgende blog! -
24 Januari 2009 - 11:10
Anjo:
Klinkt fantastisch! (Natuurlijk de landen, de drijvende hut en het eten. Niet de 40-uur durende reis ;-)) -
24 Januari 2009 - 16:02
Lady S:
For a great white you would be but a small bite. ;-) enjoy - big hugs and kisses to Darja and Ivan and see you in the firey place...:) stay alive coz otherwise this australian might not make it back from the sth pole!
PS ur bedroom is finsihed. Trying to find a name tag ... :) -
25 Januari 2009 - 11:12
Mir:
Black pepper crab.... -
25 Januari 2009 - 17:04
Chantal En Rene:
Wow yaisa, you are a real globe trotter...you must have a lot of stamps in your passport ;) take care and a big kiss from your friends in curacao -
26 Januari 2009 - 08:22
Liselotte:
Tofo gaat je zeker bevallen! Erg relaxed, hele mooie stranden, ook in de omgeving. Geniet je trip! -
27 Januari 2009 - 08:23
Di Di:
Hi Jie jie,
Xin nian kuai le!!
Looking good! Keep up the partying and enjoying life!
See you soon!
Reageer op dit reisverslag
Je kunt nu ook Smileys gebruiken. Via de toolbar, toetsenbord of door eerst : te typen en dan een woord bijvoorbeeld :smiley
